Most participants had worked for a few years "inside the machine" and then gone on to further academic research. They had a number of interesting stories.

In response to my question ("were you able to revoke policies that failed an economic cost-benefit?"), they answered "No. It's really hard to kill a policy that's in place. Most of the good we did was in preventing bad ideas from moving ahead."

Bottom Line: It's hard to work for change from within the government. On the one hand you have access to decision makers and the policy process; on the other, you may be trapped in bureaucratic silos or excluded from decisions where the policy is to ignore economics.

1 comment:

You're right, working for change is hard, in or out of governments. It's hard to change the way people think much less how they behave. If you have a free minute you can see the recent video from the International Water Forum at the UN in September at www.remake4water.org Thanks! Patti